Mumbai:
Suraj Pancholi, held for abetting the suicide of his girlfriend and actress Jiah Khan, was on Thursday remanded in judicial custody till June 27 by a local court.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Seema Jadhav rejected the remand application for extending police custody of 21-year-old Suraj, son of actor couple Aditya Pancholi and Zarina Wahab.
Seeking extension of police custody for Suraj, prosecutor A K Pancharane said police had come across the word "rape" in the six-page letter purportedly written by Jiah to her boyfriend and they wanted to probe in this direction.
He further said that Suraj had deleted messages sent to him by Jiah on cell phone and they wanted to retrieve them to investigate the angle that he abetted suicide of the 25-year-old actress.
Besides, police had recovered two letters from the servantof Pancholi family and the investigators wanted to know who had written them and to whom, the prosecutor argued.
The police remand application also said that the investigators wanted to take samples of Suraj's handwriting to prove the letters written by him to Jiah.
Counsel of Suraj, Zamir Khan, submitted that police had already recorded statements of witnesses, including Jiah's mother and sister and also of Pancholi family's servant.
He said Suraj's house had been searched and letters and electronic gadgets were recovered. Hence, he argued, custodial interrogation of Suraj was not required any further.
Khan said that both Suraj and Jiah had exchanged letters because of mutual trust, love and affection and no purpose would be served to keep Suraj in police custody.
However, the court did not agree with police that Surajwas required in police custody and hence sent him to judicialcustody. This entitles him to seek bail and his lawyer saidthey would move the court soon to apply for liberty.
